To carry out the Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) functions of a wireless communications network, a user database is typically employed. The user database is updated as the user information (e.g., identification, permission, location, AAA information, etc.) maintained therein changes.
In high reliability networks it is desirable to have redundancy in functionality and/or resources so that one or more back-ups may take over when functions and/or resources are lost due to failure or otherwise. For example, in a military wireless communications network, the nodes of the network may be targeted and destroyed by an enemy, or the adverse conditions of the theater of operations may otherwise cause one or more of the nodes to become unavailable to or disconnected from the network. Should a node be the only one capable of AAA functionality and/or be the sole location for maintenance of the user database, the destruction of that node or its separation from the network would undesirably disrupt the entire network. Therefore, particularly in military applications, the threat of a focused attack on and/or the higher potential for destruction of network nodes (as compared to civilian networks) makes redundancy in AAA functionality and/or the user database a real advantage.
One approach for achieving the desired redundancy is to have every node in the network carry out AAA functions and distribute a duplicate copy of the user database to every node for maintenance thereon. In this manner, the destruction or lost of any one node is not fatal to the network as a whole. In an implementation of the aforementioned approach, however, when a change in one user database is introduced at a given node, it is broadcast to all the others to keep the duplicate copies of the user database synchronized with one another. This database synchronization traffic can be considerably large and undesirably burdensome on the network.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved method and/or system which overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.